One of the big reasons we started The Run SMART Project was to develop a coaching staff that could provide a unique perspective and guidance to young distance athletes. Many of our coaches are former high school standouts who went on to compete at a high level in college and then professionally. In hindsight, we can offer young athletes so much and help them get to the next level.

Neil Braganza of San Ramon, CA, pictured here kicking to a new 3200m PR in 9:15.72 at the Arcadia Invite, has been working with Run SMART coach Malindi Elmore since the fall of 2014. When he signed up for coaching he had run 4:22 for 1600m and 9:48 for 3200m. Since then he’s made significant progress and is now headed to Yale in the fall!

Tomica Čudina set an 8-minute PR at the Frankfurt Mainova Half Marathon. His official time was 1:37:00. [Full Results] Afterwards, he thanked his coach Malindi Elmore:

I would like to thank you Malindi for all the support you have given me through out my preparations, with the training program but also with all the advices which were all very useful to me. I look very positively in the future working together with you in making the most form my running, which is my hobby but also much more than that. I love it and I am very grateful that I have the chance to practice such a beautiful sport.

Anna Rozek of West Bend, WI won the 2017 National Masters Indoor Championships this past weekend in the 800m. Her coach Malindi Elmore provides the recap:

“Anna raced the mile on Saturday but was disappointed with her result after finding herself boxed in most of the race. She stayed positive and turned her eye to Sunday where she came away with a personal best performance, an All American standard and a Women’s 40-44 age group win in 2:35!” [Full Results]

We’re excited to announce a new VDOT Coaching Clinic with Dr. Jack Daniels. This will be our 9th clinic since we launched the event back in 2015. To date, over 200 coaches have become VDOT Certified and past guest speakers have included Olympian Lynn Jennings, legendary coach Frank Gagliano, and ultra running champion Rob Krar.

Run SMART coach Malindi Elmore has spent the last few years working hard to transition from professional track athlete into a competitive triathlete. Many great runners have tried and failed at this challenge. I think today officially marks the successful completion of this transition for Malindi.

In 2015, we launched Dr. Daniels’ VDOT Coaching Clinic & Certification. Runner’s World hyped this brand new opportunity for distance coaches to boost their running resumes and we got a huge response quickly selling out all four events (New York (2x), San Francisco and Toronto). Featured guest speakers included Olympians Lynn Jennings and Malindi Elmore, ultrarunning’s best athlete Rob Krar and legendary coach Frank Gagliano.

I am sitting on the brand new addition to the WestJet fleet, Juliet, thinking about my great weekend in Toronto as part of The Run SMART Project’s VDOT Coaching Clinic & Certification with Dr. Jack Daniels. The new airplane, a 676, is irrelevant information to this article, but as a fan of aircrafts and running, I think it is cool to test-ride this new giant addition that will allow WestJet to offer direct flights from Calgary to Glasgow next year!

[Parts 1 and 2 of “It’s All About The Kick” can be found here and here.]

Not all races are run at even paces, which is frustrating for people who are focused on running fast! However, slow starts, surges, bumps, jostles, elbows, trips, and dramatic sprint finishes are part of what makes races exciting and unpredictable. This is the part of the race that makes it a sport and not simply “who can run fast?” Embrace the unpredictable and go with the flow as much as possible (easier said than done at times!) – and always keep your focus on a strong finish!

Many track runners think they must possess raw speed to win with a kick. This is simply not true. Kicking is often a relative term, and can almost be explained better as who slows down the least. The faster the pace, the more likely this is true. Pedestrian or championship “sit and kick” races are their own category and stranger things have been known to happen, so for the sake of this argument, let’s assume that the majority of the race is at a pace appropriate for the quality of the field assembled. (In Part 3 of this series I’ll discuss “Shifting Gears” for championship race kicks).